


Danny and Abby

by JAKishu



Category: White Collar (TV 2009)
Genre: Attempted Murder, Child Abuse, Child Death, Cold Case - Freeform, Flashback, Gen, Hurt Neal, Kidnapping, Murder, Panic Attacks, Past Character Death, Protective Peter Burke, fake name, neal has a twin sister, new identiy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-16 22:08:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 5,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28589304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JAKishu/pseuds/JAKishu
Summary: While helping with a cold case of kidnapping and child murder, Peter and his team discover a dark secret Neal tried to forget. Neal needs to face his new reality, but he isn’t alone.
Relationships: Elizabeth Burke & Neal Caffrey, Elizabeth Burke/Peter Burke, Peter Burke & Neal Caffrey
Comments: 20
Kudos: 101





	1. Lost Boy

„We need to get him for something and when it is a parking ticket. We can´t prove anything without evidence. Mayor Crime counts on us to find something to get him on forgery of document. They need it.” Peter, Diana and Jones are buried in boxes of paperwork.

“Unbelievable that he might be a kidnapper and murderer. Look at his life. He looks like the most boring person in the world.” Diana continues. She hates cases like this. All of them hate them. The cases with children.

“How many did he take?” Jones is counting the files on his side of the table.

“Ten, they found nine bodies. He takes the children from their family, keeps them and after a while he disposes of the bodies. Our colleagues haven’t found a single piece of evidence that could lead to his arrest. The only thing that they have is a witness that claims that he had seen him with the two latest victims shortly before they disappeared.” Peter opens the file of the two children. Ten-year-old twins form St. Louis.

“Abigale and Daniel Brooks. Never arrived at home after school. The mother first thought they were outside playing, reading this the police thought she was drunk as they arrived the next day as the children didn’t make it to school. They lost 15 hours before anyone was even looking for the children. Sadly, that the same as with the other children too. All their family homes were far from perfect.” Diana reads out loud of the file.

“And how are we supposed to find something at the man after 15 years and why did he stop?” Jones questions. He closes another file.

“They want him now before the 15-year mark is reached.” Peter opens a photo on his laptop of their suspect, Henry Fitzpatrick. Psychologist, worked for over 30 year in the same institution, two divorced and no children. Peter doesn’t like his eyes. These are lizard eyes, dripping with poison. “They think it has something to do with the last victims. They could never figure out what he does to the children and why he keeps them. They never found the last body maybe something went wrong. After they found the girl, they had no hope for the boy but one day they had to stop looking.” Peter sighs. He knows how it is. One day a new case appears on your desk, you need to focus on it, then the next one and so on. There is just not enough time to do more.

“We could try to get him over the name?” Diana offers a new file and puts it on the ever-growing pile. “He did buy a few suspicious items under a false name with a credit card 10 years ago. I mean it´s not much but they could connect the name with him, maybe he used this name or another for something else.”

“That´s a great idea, I will check all property purchase, he could have used this name to hide his little dirty secrets from his wife in a different house or apartment.” Jones opens the web side and starts his research as Neal enters the conference room, wearing his hundred-million-dollar smile, his fedora and a freshly brought cup of coffee.

“Sorry I´m late. I couldn’t get a taxi before the morning rush hour reached its peak. What are you doing? Looks like a lot of paperwork. Maybe I will just go back to my-“ Neal is on the way to turn back as his eyes caught on something. Peter ignores it and is on the way to push one of the unopened boxed with more files toward Neal a the still hot coffee cup loses its owner and falls to the ground, splashing the hot liquid everywhere.

“Neal-“ Peter wants to shout at his CI, but the look in these blue eyes stop him immediately. This was not Neal that looked horrified at the laptop that still shows the picture of their suspect, this was a terrified little child confronted with his darkest nightmares. “Neal?” Peter asks softly, the sound of his soft voice get him the attention from Diana and Jones but not Neals. Neal starts slowly moving away from the picture, form them and only stops as his back reaches the wall of the room. He slowly slides down and finds it in his ability to move further into the closed corner.

Shocked by his CI´s behaviour Peter had frozen in place. Neal suddenly starts to cry, his body rocks for and back. His finger starts scratching his skin on his neck and face as if he tries to pull off his skin, he mumbles words Peter can´t hear from the distance. His breathing is too fast and in under a minute the calm, happy man had transformed into a crying mess during a full-blown panic attack.

Finally reacting Peter slowly closes the distance between him and Neal. Diana locks the door to the conference room to prevent any interruption and Jones closes the blinds of the glass walls. To prevent further injuries Peter takes Neal´s wrist, careful but keeps them in a strong grip. His fingernails are already bloody from where Neal had scratched his skin open.

“Neal? Take a deep breathe. You are save. No one here will hurt you.” Peter recognizes a panic attack when he sees one and this is a really big one.

“… Abby.” Neal repeats the name over and over. His eyes are blown dark orbits unfocused and clearly nowhere near this building. “Abby.”

“Neal, I need you to calm down. Tell me what´s wrong.” Peter tries to touch Neal´s face but with his hands still occupied to keep Neal from hurting himself again.

“What is he saying?” Diana asks while she closes the laptop and covering the files. The only thing she thinks of doing because this is the only thing she can do. It had to be something here in this room that spooked their colleague and friend. Jones is helping her, but both keep their distance. Peter has Neal secure in the corner; they don’t want to crowd him.

“He says the name Abby over and over again.” Suddenly a thought appears in Peters’ mind. He had read this name only minutes ago. “Diana what’s the name of Abigale Brooks brother?”

She opens the file she had closed a second ago. “Daniel.”

“Daniel?” Peter had just looked at the pictures of the ten children for seconds not wanting their eyes haunting his nightmares, but this is the only conclusion for Neals sudden panic. “Danny?” And that gives him a reaction, finally.

Neal stops rocking and his hands that had keep fighting against Peter holding them gone limp. His CI finally blinked and looks at him as if he sees him for the first time.

“Danny?” Peter asks again and Neal goes limp. His whole body just shuts down. At least Peter reacts fast enough to catch him.


	2. Shocked

Still not fully understanding what just happen let Peter sit on the floor, arms full of unconscious CI while he stars up to meet Diana and Jones eyes, both as confused and surprised as him.

“Did that really just happen?” Jones is the first to break the silence.

“I think it did.” Diana answers and walks over to Peter to check on Neal. “What now boss?”

“Not sure. Best thing would be when he wakes up and tells us what happened but I´m not sure how he will be. He didn’t recognize me. I could see it in his eyes. He had no idea where he is or who I am.”

“So, Neal Caffrey is Daniel Brooks?” Jones looks at the file again, more specific on the picture of a ten-year-old Daniel, taken in school. “When you know it, you can clearly see it. The eyes are a dead give-away. Explains also why the body was never found and most likely why no other children were taken.” Neal starts moving in Peter´s lap, slowly opens his eyes before sitting up, clearly confused about the whole situation.

“Neal?” Neal reacts to his (clearly fake) name and looks at Peter and this look hurt. His friend’s eyes are filled with more pain they should be able to hold but he didn’t say a word. “Ok, I will take you home.” Slowly he helps his partner up to stand on unsteady legs. “Diana, go to Hughes, explain what happened and that I will be at home working from there. You and Jones keep working on this. I will take care of him.” It was clear that Neal didn’t listen to them or what happens around him. “Keep it simple with Hughes, I will call him later.”

Peter leads Neal out of the office, ignoring all the looks that follow them and take him to the car. Neal is walking on his own, when Peter pushes him to the right direction but it´s like leading a doll on strings. After getting his CI into the car and getting the seatbelt for him, he throws his suit jacket over Neal. Peter calls Elisabeth on the way home it´s her day off. He tells her only the basics. He is on the way home and brings Neal over. Nothing more. Everything else can be discussed at home.

* * *

El is waiting for them at the door. The sound of Peters voice filled with worry and concern is enough to get her on high alert. Watching her husband, how he leads a very mute and very unusually quiet Neal into their living room was more than a bit disturbing. Peter places Neal on the sofa, wraps a blanket around him and let Satchmo lay down on Neals feet. Nothing got a reaction out of Neal and Peter pulls his wife into the kitchen. Still an eye on Neal but out of hearing range.

“Hon, what happened to Neal?” She starts without waiting a second for Peter to be ready for such a difficult conversation.

“We are currently helping Major Crime to find something against someone they believe had kidnapped 10 children and killed 9 of them. The one that wasn’t killed seems to be Neal. He reacted badly to a picture of our suspect and confirms out theory. He looks like the boy in the picture and he had a panic attack/flashback in the middle of the office. He didn’t recognize me and didn’t reacted to his name, only as I called him Danny, was he reacting. Not in a good way.” Peter looks into his wife´s eyes and is once more thankful for her choosing him. He can see her righteous anger against the man that had hurt Neal, the pain she is feeling for Neal and her unconditional love and support for him.

“You will get that monster that hurt Neal and we will get him back to be his usual self.” She smiles her unique smile, turns her back and make a cup of tea. While Peter is watching over Neals unmoving figure.

With the tea in her hands she kneels down next to Neal. “Here sweetheart, I made you a tea with honey. It will warm you up.” As Neal isn’t moving to take the cup she helps him and if it is a reflex or not Neal lifts his arms and takes the first sip. “You rest here honey, don’t worry about a thing.” Elizabeth gets up and kisses the young man who isn’t more than a frightened child at the moment on the forehead.

* * *

Agent Reese Hughes is looking at the file in his hand, reading its content and looking at the picture of the boy they all had thought of long lost. Caffrey was always open for a surprise but the agent wasn’t sure this one will get them to an happy ending. Regarding the condition of the White Collar Unit´s CI Reese is sure that it will take more than a few words to take away the heavy curtain that Neal had hidden behind.

Reese sighs. “I will have a conversation with the boy. You will get everything ready for an interview. We need an statement to get the guy and I truly intent to let him suffer. For this we need Neal.” Diana nods, she is aware of the eyes that follow her out of the office and the whole way back to the conference room.


	3. Night-time

Neal hasn’t moved away from his spot on the sofa. Not as El took the rest of the cold cup of tea, not as Peter places another blanket around his shoulders and not as they try to get him to eat something. Neal just sits there, starring into nothing and for the first time Peter doesn’t want to know what is going on in his CI´s mind. HE always wants to know what he is planning and thinking but right now he doesn’t need to see it to know that it is the boy´s worst nightmare.

The sudden noise of the doorbell brings both Burkes back to the presents. El get´s up quickly to open the door. “Agent Hughes. Come in.” She leads the man into their living room while Peter is kneeling next to Neal keeping one of his hands on the man´s arm. Neal is still completely ignorant for anything that happens around him.

“Burke.” Reese nods and get slowly closer. Peter notice that he goes out of his way to make sure Neal can see him. “How is he.” His boss had notice that there was no reaction from Neal.

“Not sure. He isn’t talking. He doesn’t respond to anything we do.” Peter tries again, rubbing up and down Neal´s arm. “Hey Neal. Can you look at me for a second.” But nothing happens.

“Ok, we will get that.” Peter looks back at his boss. “I will take care of everything in the office and the case. Diana is working on it too. You keep him safe and when he is ready to talk and for an interview you bring him to the office.” Peter just nods. Neal doesn’t make the impression of ever again doing anything but that is just the shock.

Reese leaves shortly after and El calls Mozzie. The small man isn’t in the city but tells them about how he found Neal on the street. A teenager of fifteen. Frightened and more like a wild animal than a human. But the worst were the nightmares. Soul-crashing nightmares that left the teenager catatonic. Only time and a save environment helped. 

* * *

As the night came and Neal wasn’t in any condition to move, Peter decided to stay in the living room. A small lamp lights the room and giving the walls strange shadows. Neither men seems to find sleep this night but Peter couldn’t imagine to close his eyes not with his friend and partner in pain right in front of him. Around midnight a thought entered Peters minds. A dark and sickening thought. What happens when Neal stays like this. What if today was the last piece to destroy the young man´s soul. What if he stays like this forever, unresponding and prisoned in his own mind.

A cold wave of fear takes over his body but a sudden movement let Peter fix his eyes on Neal. Neal, whose eye look at him, not through him. A strange look in his eyes, one Peter had never seen before. It wasn’t the frightened child from before, the one in the office that didn’t know him or his name. It isn’t the one of his friends either. It´s like a mix his friend scared to the core of his soul.

Neal opens his mouth and a haunted voice appears. “Peter, please hide me. He can´t find me.” Peter gets up, aware of the blue eyes that follow every of his movement as he sits down right next to him.

Neal is pulled into a hug and the man let it happen. “I will protect you, no one will hurt you ever again.” Neal relaxes slightly in the embrace and hides his face in Peters shoulder, the wetness that appears on his shirt is ignored by the agent. Both men sit like that for hours, none of them is ready to move until the first light of the day fights its way into the living room.

* * *

Around 5 a.m. Peter gets up and pulls Neal with him, he goes willingly. They make the way upstairs and Peter leads Neal into the guest room. Elizabeth got it ready the evening before. The bed is freshly made, an old FBI shirt and pyjama pants of Peter wait for the young man. He seems to be alright changing into his sleeping clothes. Peter tugs him in like a child but before he can leave a hand grips him tight.

“You won´t let him in, right?” Child like fear bleeds into the words.

“No, never.” Peter brushes Neal´s hair away from his forehead. “He will meet with a bullet before he can enter this house. You are safe here. I promise.” Neal studies his eyes and he seems to find what he is looking for. He nods and let go of Peters hand and falls into an exhausted sleep.


	4. Ghost

The next days were filled with silence. Neal wouldn’t leave the guest room for anything except quick visits to the bathroom and even then, only when he knows exactly where Peter is. Elizabeth does her best not to worry too much in front of him. She tries to smile and light his mood; she brings him food and does her best to get him to eat. Sometimes he takes a few bites out of a sandwich but Peter is sure he does it for her not because he is hungry.

Neal is like a shell of the man he once was. Mozzie appears on their doorstep on the second day, he enters their house and after an hour with Neal in his room he sits down with them in the kitchen. “That is bad, suit. Worse than I had feared.” He nods his thanks to El as she hands him a cup of tea. “If he doesn’t get a out of his dark place I fear my friend will be lost.”

“What got him out of this the last time?” Peter asks without putting his coffee down.

“He wasn’t like that as I found him on the street. He was more like a frighten but fighting animal. Mistrusting and dangerous. It took ages until he trusted me enough to eat what I made him.” Mozzie´s eyes glaze into the past. “Now it´s like he lost all fight, all ambitions to do something.”

Silence enters the kitchen like the whole house is silence. Even Satchmo isn’t his happy puppy self. He feels the dark mood that has entered their home. Mozzie doesn’t stay long, he promised to return soon and Peter knows that he is trying to get some information on the man that had hurt his friend. He doesn’t want to know what the small man will do. He hopes that Diana get something before Mozzie let his rage fell onto the man.

* * *

Peter is working on some paperwork in the living room, right in the view of Neal when he wants to look out his room to check his whereabout. El had gone to work, she didn’t want to go but both see that nothing else can be achieved by her staying home. As the evening of the fifth day arrived and Elizabeth came down from Neal´s room with a sad look on her face Peter reaches his limit.

This man had taken so much from Neal he will not let him take his future and happiness. Peter gets up and takes the plate with untouched sandwiches El had tried to bride in Neal for dinner. “Stay here, that could become ugly very quickly.” Peter isn’t sure what he will do, he isn’t even sure he should go up there and try to get Neal to do something, anything.

Peter would prefer an angry Neal. Furious to the world and the people who hurt him, his sister and so many other. He would understand and take any form of violence, anything is better than this lifeless shell that is sitting in the corner of his guestroom.

To his surprise he finds Neal on the bed this time. The first time he entered the guestroom and didn’t see Neal there he had panicked until he found the figure of his friend hidden behind the bed in the corner of the room. Peter places the food on the nightstand next to Neal, without commenting on it before he sits down on the bed.

Nothing he can say will make anything right or better, his presence can do only so much, so what will motivate to get Neal out of this. What can he do to help this tortured child. Not that it had been his job ten years ago but he just wished he could have helped Daniel and Abigale Brooks.

“Abby.” Neal looked suddenly up, his sisters name got Peter all the attention he wanted. “Did you ever visit her grave?”

Neal bits on his lips, a nervous tick he had developed over the last few days. The CI shakes his head. “I don’t know where she is.” It is not guilt that passes the blue eyes, Peter would call it regret. “I never tried to find her. I … I knew she was dead, there was nothing I could do to help her.” The first tear finally finds his way down Neal´s face. “I couldn’t even say her name. I didn’t protect her.” Now the tears flood the eyes and hands try to get rid of them. “I´m her big brother and she died in this room without seeing the sun ever again. It should have been me, why didn’t he let us both go, why did he take us.” At the end Neal is shouting and as all the words have left him Peter closes his arms around the shaking figure in front of him.

Dark hair gets stroked by Peters big hands while Neal cried. Every emotion that hadn’t had the chance to get out the last days and most likely the last 10 years finally come up to the surface.

“It´s not your fault. It never was and never will be. Your sister would never blame you. Don’t blame yourself for something that monster did.”

* * *

It takes Neal a long time to calm down enough to speak again. His sobbing had died down but Peter didn’t make them move, he waits for Neal to find his strength to speak again. “What will happen now?” His voice was barely above a whisper.

“Now you will eat something and tomorrow we got to the FBI, you make your statement and we bring that monster down and lock it away forever like he deserve.” Neal didn’t answer just stared onto the wall at the over side of the room. Without looking he takes one of the sandwiches and takes a bit. He didn’t sit up, taking all his strength from Peter´s body next to him.


	5. Interview

Peter would like to wrap up Neal in bubble-wrap, to shield him from everything bad in this world. He looks like a breeze could push him down. They make it to the office without stopping but Peter sees how every step further towards the interrogation room takes everything out of Neal, he sees how every step further hurts him in his soul but they can´t turn around. They will do that and Peter promised to stay with Neal the whole time.

Diana is the one leading the interview and Peter is very thankful for it. Neal doesn’t seem to care, it could be God itself and he would fear it. Diana asks Neal to start at the beginning and after Peter touches his hand to give him whatever he needs, courage, warmth, another person. Neal looks up at her as she offers him a small smile and a picture of his sister. He holds the picture that had been taken the year before they had taken in school. There aren’t any pictures of them take other then the school pictures. With careful fingers he holds this little piece of Abby in his hands. Neal suddenly knows that he won´t give it back. Behind his mind he felt the small, frightened boy named Danny that he tried so hart to forget. Another deep breath and Neal/Danny starts to tell his story.

* * *

_It all began on the day we were taken. Abby and I we are … were never separated. Our school friends teased us for it but we didn’t care. We never needed someone else. We learned early on to only depend on each other. Our mother wasn’t really there for us, for anyone. She didn’t take it well as our father was gone, So we mostly took care of our self. I don’t really know what we did on the day or why we were out there. The memories of how he took us is blurry at best. Somehow he drugged us and took us to his house. When we woke up we both couldn’t remember how it happened and I never found out. There were more important thinks like surviving. Abby and I woke up in a windowless basement room, cold and dark. Chained to the opposite walls. We couldn’t even touch. I couldn’t hold my frightened little sister when she was crying._

_The first time he came down I begged him to let us go. The tenth time I begged him to let her go and just keep me. The fifties day he took her body away and I was all alone. For the next five years. I counted the days. Everyday he came to us, to me and everyday he told me that no one would ever find me. He said he finally found what he was looking for in me. The reason he no longer needed Abby is that I was apparently the one he needed._

_Every day was the same and in the end, I found out what he wanted. Someone who fights in a certain way, someone who can do things in a certain way. When he came into the basement, he presented a new test, every day. I really don’t know what he wanted but I was able to do these tests and answer his questions correctly and do the things he wanted me to do in the way he wanted them. When I was wrong it would mean no food and water for a day until I would get it right the next day or the day after it. There where weeks without light and some with too much. There where days when he wouldn’t let me sleep until my brain just shuts down. Days with what I know now are the worst torture methods you can think of that wouldn’t let permanent damage. The beginning with his quizzes and the little exercises I had to do were gone in the end. I forget how to do something else then screaming. I forget that words, my words had meaning. There was always pain and I couldn’t get a meaning to my suffering._

_I think the only thing that kept me going was the memory on Abby. She let me promise her something and I intended to keep that promise. She made me promise her to survive. To get away from it all and be free. She was always the only person that could reach me, that I trusted without doubt._

_The day I could escape was the last in a long line of experiments. I think he didn’t believe I would be able to even think of running. I hadn’t tried in years. Waiting for the one moment he would turn his back on me. I know where I had to run. I had years of listening to footsteps outside the door. I knew where the stairs were and how far it was to reach the door._

_I took one of the syringes that were meant for me, another sedative or something, and pushed into his neck as he turned around to get something form his bag. I didn’t need to see how his eyes turned white and roll back but I watched and if I had a clearer mind I had killed him right there on the floor. But I ran, like I always do since that day. I ran up the stairs, through the door, out the house and I run until my feet were bleeding and my lung wanted to vomit itself out of my body._

_No one cared for some child running bare foot around the city in dirty clothes and blood on his feet. It took me a while to understand that I wasn’t in St. Louis anymore. I never questioned where I was but as I reached the shore and stared at the statue of liberty I learned that I had spend the last five years of my life in a city I had never seen._

_I don’t now how I survived until Mozzie found me but he didn’t give up on me and tried everything he could think of the keep me alive. He is the reason I am here now._

* * *

For the first time Neal looked up from the picture after he had ended. He doesn’t know if that was enough but he hopes so. He feels empty as if he had let go of something an it just left. He doesn’t know what it was. Maybe part of his pain, of his guilt for letting him take her away. Neal can´t be sure. He feels to raw to understand it. That is the first time he ever talked about it.

The nightmares he had about his place in hell and were witnessed by Mozzie might have told the smaller man some things, but he never offered anything of that to anyone.

“Neal. Can you tell us the name of the man that did that too you and Abby?” Diana asks. Neal notice for the first time that he never named the man, he doesn’t want to end up identifying him in a line or on a picture. If he never has to see his eyes again it will still be too soon.

Neal swallows. “His name is Henry Fitzpatrick.”


	6. Past and Future

New York is behind them, the skyline with its buildings and millions of people are just a distance memory at least for Neal. His mind isn’t in the right place, not in the here and now. He doesn’t know where he is. He knows he sits in Peter´s car. With Peter beside him, driving them to St. Louis and if he hadn’t known better Neal thought that this is a dream. How can they leave the city. His whole word is in New York. Everything that is important for him is there, still they are on the highway, away from his home.

Neal had been better. After the interview he had felt freed in some way. He wasn’t magical better and he didn’t pretend it never happened because he couldn’t. Even the thought of pushing his memories of Abby away again hurt more than any pain he ever felt. The FBI was very thoughtful, they gave him his space, they helped him. They even offered him to use his real name without commenting on any of it but he couldn’t. Danny Brooks died the day he left hell. He might have died early, maybe the day Abby´s body was taken away. Neal doesn’t know the answer for it. They accepted his answer.

His kidnapper and torture is in prison. Except for the one time in the interview room Neal had never again said his name. He tried to keep away from any news from the process or any other information that could give him the name or worse a picture of the man. Peter helped, Elizabeth helped, Mozzie, Diana, Jones even Hughes helped him and Neal is very thankful. Still he doesn’t feel whole again. This dark, empty something inside of him doesn’t leave.

The only thing that let Neal sleep is the knowledge that Peter is sleeping in the room next to him and that he has a gun close by. With Satchmo in his bed Neal can pretend that he is same. After the first night as he had asked Peter to protect him, Neal hadn’t left in all this month. He still sleeps in the Burke´s guest room what had become his room and they let him. It amazes Neal every morning that both Burkes seem to really want him there. He might be able to leave one day but he isn’t ready.

* * *

The car stops and Neal blinks. They are at the cemetery parking neither of the opens their door or unbuckle their seatbelts. Neal had asked for it. He had ask Peter to take him here but he isn’t sure he can get out of the car.

“Take your time. We don’t have to go today. I booked us a hotel room. We have time. We go when you are ready.” Peter, as patient as always. Since when is he so patient, does he pity Neal. No this Peter. He doesn’t pity him. He might feel sorry but he mostly wishes to erase this dark past and gift Neal and his sister the childhood every child deserve.

This thought get Neal to move. Peter is beside him before he reaches the gate. They walk slowly up the hill and Peter pointed at one of the gravestones. It´s a small one with just a name and a date on it. There were no flowers around it but a candle is sitting next to the stone.

ABIGALE BROOKS

“Hey Abby.” And the seconds this words came out Neal felt silence tear stream down his face. He could feel Peter behind him but Neal ignored his presence for the moment. He hadn’t thought he would really get here, ever. He never thought he would be brave enough to come here but now he is standing in front of his sisters grave.

“I miss you Abby.” Slowly Neal gets a small bag out of his jacket. He had brought it in New York in one of the garden shops that June likes. Neal couldn’t be sure he would really do that but now it feels right. Neal sinks to his knees and digs small holes with his fingers. Ten wholes. In every hole he puts one of the seeds and pushes the soil back on top of it. Behind him Peter offers him a water bottle. They could have used the water from the cemetery but they don’t want to move. So Neal uses the water that was offered to water the plants.

“I brought you your favourite flowers. I hope you like them.” Neal gets up again and after a long moment, it could have been only minutes or hours he turns to Peter and nods. He is ready to go.

“See you soon, Abby.” Neal wished for her to answer, to see her smile but he wouldn’t. So he has to keep the one from his memory safe, forever. To never forget her.

* * *

At the parked car Peter looked at Neal. “What kind of flowers did you plant?”

Neal looks up, back to the hill where his sister sleeps forever. “Forget-me-nots.”


End file.
